Based on a guilty verdict of the jury, a court has recognized the evidence gathered by the Investigative Committee’s Major Cases Directorate as sufficient to convict Zaur Dadayev, Shadid Gubashev, Anzor Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev. They were found guilty of contract murder committed by an organized group under Part 2, items “g” and “h” of Article 105 and illegal purchase, carrying, transportation and storage of firearms under part 3 of Article 222 of the RF Criminal Code.

The court and investigators have revealed that in late September 2014 Ruslan Mukhudinov and other individuals offered Beslan Shavanov, Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Bakhayev and Eskerkhanov to kill Boris Nemtsov in exchange for some 15 million rubles. The said individuals agreed and having set up a group started planning the crime. They prepared for the assassination carefully: they studied Nemtsov’s lifestyle, his residences and the places he frequented, put him under surveillance and chose the way and place of the murder, necessary weapons, vehicles and communication means. They also looked for the ways and routes of fleeing the crime scene.

This information is fully confirmed by the evidence. For example, while following the target, the accused tried to avoid getting parking tickets. But on several occasions they still got them on a parking lot not far from Nemtsov’s building, suggesting that they appeared there regularly. The investigators also studied footage from surveillance cameras which together with other witness statements and other evidence confirm that the accused were familiar to each other and gathered at certain place before and after the crime.

The investigators have managed to restore the timeline of the events on the day Nemtsov was killed. On 27 February 2015, at about 11 AM, Zaur Dadayev carrying a 9mm gun together with Anzor Gubashev and Shavanov arrived to the residential building in Malaya Ordynka Street where Nemtsov lived to watch him and possibly kill. At about 9:45 the same day, when Nemtsov was driving to GUM shopping mall, the perpetrators followed him and continued shadowing him. After Nemtsov and Anna Duritskaya left the building and were headed home, Shavanov and Gubashev signaled Dadayev that the conditions were right for the murder and filled him in on Nemtstov’s route. At about 11:31, Dadayev following Nemtsov and Duritskaya along a sidewalk of Bolshoy Moskvoretsky bridge made at least 6 shots at Nemtsov. The man was killed on the spot.

At the moment of the crime Anzor Gubashev and Shavanov were in a car watching the neighborhood in order to warn the killer if there was any kind of danger, including arrival of the police. After the murder Dadayev, Shavanov and Anzor Gubashev took off immediately. Later Mukhudinov, Shadid Gubashev, Eskerkhanov, Bakhayev and others helped the three accomplices to hide from the police and leave Moscow Region.

The evidence gathered, including results of forensic examinations (DNA, biological, traceological tests, examination of footage and others) confirm the version put forward by the investigators. Results of DNA tests confirmed the biological traces of the accused were present in the ZAZ car. For example, biological material found on a bottle of cranberries kissel in the car belonged to Gubashev. The investigators found out that the drink had been bought not far from the victim’s home. Traceological inquiries confirmed that there were traces of gunshots on Zaur Dadayev’s hands and body, while analysis of footage and other evidence helped to restore the timeline and placed the accused on the murder scene and other places during the crime.

The investigators checked the statements made by Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev that they killed Nemtsov out of religious motives, as he had supported Prophet Mohammed’s caricatures published in French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. However, the evidence shows that the members of the organized group had started preparing the murder in September 2014, which makes the religious motive unviable. The same evidence confirms the mercenary motive, that is the murder for which they had received at least 15 million rubles.

The investigation against Shavanov was dropped in November 2015 due to his death during his suicidal bombing in the city of Grozny, when the police tried to detain him.

The court has sentenced Zaur Dadayev to 20 years in prison, Anzor Gubashev to 19 years, Shadid Gubashev to 16 years, Temirlan Eskerkhanov to 14 years, Khamzat Bakhayev to 11 years and to a fine of 100,000 rubles. Zaur Dadayev was also stripped of military rank and the Order of Courage.

The investigators continue gathering evidence against the organizer of the murder.

Official spokesperson for the RF Investigative Committee Svetlana Petrenko